Stories of love under censorship, life in exile, and the new languages of technology: Bard College Berlin brings a polyphony of literary voices to LitFest 2024, including International Booker Prize-winner Jenny Erpenbeck

Now in its third year, LitFest at Bard College Berlin is an annual two-day series of readings and author talks celebrating Berlin's literary diversity by highlighting writers from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds to create meaningful connections. This year’s LitFest, held on November 21-22, was aptly titled “Polyphony of a Metropolis.” Five internationally-acclaimed writers came to BCB to share their work: Jenny Erpenbeck, renowned German novelist, playwright, and 2024 International Booker Prize winner for her novel Kairos; her father John Erpenbeck, scientist, novelist, and longtime resident of Pankow-Niederschönhausen; Irish writer Naoise Dolan; and poets and translators Volha Hapeyeva and Uljana Wolf. Four BCB student writers also presented their short stories. The series of public events was organized and moderated by Dr. Andreas Martin Widmann and Prof. Dr. Laura Scuriatti.

The first evening’s events featured three writers: Volha Hapeyeva and Uljana Wolf in conversation, followed by Irish novelist Naoise Dolan. Hapeyeva and Wolf read from their recent volumes of poetry and discussed the technical and aesthetic aspects of translation in relation to the poetics of their own works. Hapeyeva is a poet, translator, and linguist from Belarus who has been living in exile in Germany since 2020; she is a recipient of the prestigious Wortmeldungen Prize 2022 for her essay on poetry and exile. Wolf is a German poet, translator, and essayist who explores the potentialities and ambiguities opened up by the mutable, interstitial spaces between languages. Her writing oscillates between her native German and several other languages.

Naoise Dolan is the author of Exciting Times (2020) and The Happy Couple (2023), the latter of which has been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. Originally from Ireland and now living in Berlin, Dolan discussed her writing, which features the experiences, fears, and hopes of the millennial generation. Her characters navigate an increasingly technologically connected but politically complex world.

Dolan reflected on her decision to live in Berlin, influenced by the multilingual and international community of writers that she encountered here. She explored the literary and political aspects of this linguistic variety in relation to her background as a speaker of English and Irish in Ireland and in the global “Anglosphere.” Dolan also discussed questions of translatability on the basis of passages from the Italian and German translations of The Happy Couple—a choice which was received with enthusiasm by the multilingual audience.

Friday evening’s events opened with the annual BCB student reading. “LitFest wouldn’t be what it is without the student readings,” remarked Widmann as he introduced the student writers. Four students shared their short stories, each followed by a lively discussion. From vivid characters—some winking at God, others endlessly crossing and uncrossing their legs and arms—and dream-like imagery—floating numbers and orange scarves on navy sweaters—the readings were full of, as one student put it, “charming ambiguities.”

One recurring theme in these discussions was the implementation of modern technology in writing. Does the use of iPhones, text messages, and pop culture references add to a story or detract from the impact? Are digital platforms and interfaces producing new types of languages and literary forms? Some students asserted that modern technology has no place in their writing, preferring their characters to use typewriters instead—while noting that Naoise Dolan would disagree, considering the crucial role digital communication plays in her latest novel.

The concluding session of this year’s LitFest, held on Friday evening, was the lively discussion between Jenny Erpenbeck and John Erpenbeck. In the warm light of the W15 Cafe amidst a crowd of literature enthusiasts, Pankow neighbors, and BCB community members, the father-daughter duo sat for an insightful conversation on their respective works, their multi-generational family of writers, their deep connections to the Pankow neighborhood, and their experiences as intellectuals in the GDR.

Bard College Berlin’s Managing Director Dr. Florian Becker opened the discussion, addressing the university’s commitment to building on the intellectual tradition of the residential area where the campus is located—a history reflected in John Erpenbeck’s 1995 novel Aufschwung. He further stressed Bard College Berlin’s efforts to provide a safe environment for threatened scholars as well as students from forced migration backgrounds through scholarships and other initiatives, a concern that has its own echo in Jenny Erpenbeck’s work. Her 2015 novel Gehen, ging, gegangen tells about the condition of African asylum seekers in Europe.

A significant part of the discussion centered around the political contexts of the Erpenbecks’ lives and writings. They described the Intelligenzsiedlungen ("intelligentsia settlements") in East Berlin, an initiative by the East German government to attract intellectuals such as writers, cultural actors, and scientists to the East. One such settlement was the area of Pankow-Niederschönhausen, the home of Bard College Berlin’s campus. In fact, directly adjacent to campus lies a street called the Fritz-Erpenbeck-Ring, named posthumously after John Erpenbeck’s father—and grandfather of Jenny Erpenbeck—a prominent author and intellectual who moved to the neighborhood with his wife, author and theatre director Hedda Zinner, as part of the settlements project.

Writing and publishing within the repressive environment of the GDR came with literary restrictions, but the Erpenbecks note that it also inspired artistic ingenuity. John Erpenbeck quoted Heinrich Heine: "Zensur verfeinert den Stil" (censorship refines the style). Jenny Erpenbeck pointed out that her grandmother Hedda Zinner was also a prolific writer with her own experiences of censorship, who wrote about Stalinist repressions against German authors publishing in the Soviet Union.

Considering the extent to which Jenny Erpenbeck, John Erpenbeck, and other writers in their family draw upon their personal lives in their work, an audience member asked a thought-provoking question: What did the Erpenbecks think about the ethics of writing and publishing about one's own family, exposing what is private to a public eye? Jenny Erpenbeck noted that in a three-generational family of writers, family stories get passed on. While the content of the stories stays largely the same, the various ways of perceiving the same events result in different highlights, omissions, and emphases in each instance of retelling a story. Each time the same story is retold, it is colored differently by the zeitgeist, understanding, and style of each narrator. 

This year’s LitFest marks another successful year of opening Bard College Berlin’s campus to the public by welcoming outstanding writers and celebrating linguistic, cultural, and stylistic diversity in writing. The college looks forward to welcoming guests to future public events and lectures; the calendar of upcoming public events can be viewed here.

Post Date: 12-04-2024